The White Van

Starred review from July 7, 2014
A heist propels Hoffman’s outstanding first novel. Sophia, a Russian émigré, plans to rob a San Francisco branch of US Bank with some inside assistance from its manager, Rada Harkov, and the help of two people recruited (decidedly against their wills) for the job: “the Russian,” another émigré and a black-market trader who owes Sophia money; and Emily, a young woman coerced into helping with drugs and threats (“She had been made into a slave”). The robbery nets some $880,000, a powerful temptation for another major character, Elias, an officer with the SFPD Gang Task Force. An alcoholic, Elias is plagued by money worries. Beyond the engaging plot, the book focuses on people’s behavior in the face of impossible choices. Hoffman, who spent nine years working as a PI in San Francisco, writes with great authority about the city’s seamy side and the grim realities of life for its down-on-their-luck denizens. Agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency.

September 15, 2014
A young woman named Emily eyes the other customers in a shabby bar in San Francisco's Tenderloin. She decides that a middle-aged businessman is the only person who might buy her the evening's drinks. A week later, wobbling from a salad of drugs, she has robbed a bank of $800,000 and is being hunted by cops and an array of gangsters who want the money. Readers won't find anyone to root for in this thoughtful novel. Hoffman seems to have crafted a plausible ecology of San Francisco crime. Benya, the businessman, is actually a small-time Russian grafter who has been aimed at Emily by a shrewd and dangerous female Russian gangster who has essentially bought Benya from another Russian hood. Feckless SFPD cop Leo Elias thinks the answer to his many problems is to find Emily and take the money. Chinese black marketeers with assault weapons; streetwise Cambodians; and sketchy entrepreneurs also appear, all maneuvering for advantage. Hoffman's nine years as an investigator in the city add verisimilitude to this well-crafted debut.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)